If we get to 50 pts / top 10 finish this season then I would be very pleased with the season, especially with the injuries, and see it as real progress. It would even mark reaching another stage in the famous '5 stage' plan and we would all have taken that at the beginning of the season. Can we really see us winning our last 2 games? Wolves would still have something to play for but can be dire at times. W'Ham! will be down, with the pressure off, will play freely, and we never get anything away to them? Was today the end of the goals/passionate performances? (BTW: When Bolton scored yesterday, was the song they play "I just can't get it up!")
I don't think the remaining two games will be easy - Wolves are still fighting for survival, and West Ham will be 'playing for pride', as they say. But there's a lot of talk about 50 points getting us to 8th. position. That's tripe - 50 points would get us to 8th if Bolton, Fulham and Newcastle all lost their last two. But that's not very likely. We could nick 10th - Newcastle have to go to Chelsea yet, and if Chelsea are still in with a shot at the title after today, they'll give nowt away. The trouble is the goalposts have moved. Our aim at start of season was to get out of mini-division 3 and into mini-division 2. And we've missed that. It's all up in the air at the moment - there's only 4 points between Villa in 14th and Bolton in 8th. so we could end up anywhere in that group. No matter what we do, our finishing position depends on other results.
50 points would indicate some progress, but I can't see us winning the last 2 games. Perhaps a point each game is realistic (perhaps optimistic )
To be honest, if you'd given me a top 10 finish back in August I'd have taken it. However, with 35 points in January, we could have and I think should have made a better fist of the season than just avoiding relegation and struggling to break into a top 10 of a mediocre 2nd tier EPL. At one point, we were 9 points clear in 6th. The injuries have effected us granted but there has been more to our demise than just that. Some tactical naivety in games and a run of 1 win in 11 is pathetic at any level. Letting Bent go without a plan B, knowing Campbell was not likely to make a return until April was a gamble that has backfired spectacularly and we shouldn't just brush this season under the carpet now we are definitely safe. The season has been a very poor one and to suggest anything else is simply blinkered. Bruce is under the spotlight IMO and has a mammoth task to turn the negative feelings many fans have for him now. I don't see any progress at all, in fact I'd say we just took a huge step backwards from his first season. A poor start to his 3rd and he wont see Christmas as SAFC manager.
I know it's not much but every point from now on represents a new points record since we came up with Keane. (A long way from 58 pts with PR in 2000 though.)
